Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Greenpeace activists place a cardboard likeness of the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in floodwaters in Cainta, Rizal with banners declaring: “This is the State of the Nation” and “Make Polluters Pay” on July 23, 2025.  The protest spotlighted the urgent need for climate accountability after monsoon rains brought by tropical storm Crising inundated parts of the Greater Manila Area. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Habagat amid Crising

Raphael Bosano

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176353675794420250723-habagat-cainta-flooding-MD6.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Greenpeace activists place a cardboard likeness of the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in floodwaters in Cainta, Rizal with banners declaring: “This is the State of the Nation” and “Make Polluters Pay” on July 23, 2025.  The protest spotlighted the urgent need for climate accountability after monsoon rains brought by tropical storm Crising inundated parts of the Greater Manila Area. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</span></span></span>BELÉM, Brazil — The Philippines is considered a medium-performing country in so far as climate mitigation performance is concerned as it drops 12 rungs in ratings of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).</div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/11/4/why-filipinos-should-care-about-climate-negotiations-at-cop30-1416">Why Filipinos should care about climate negotiations at COP30</a></div><p>Sixty three countries, which comprise 90 percent of all global emissions, were assessed in four categories; Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use, and Climate Policy. Emissions formed 40% of the overall ranking while the other three, 20% each.</p><p>The Philippines fared rather well in emissions with a high rating and ranking of 12th.</p><p>But for for Jameela Joy Reyes, Technical Adviser of the Manila Observatory’s Kilma Center, it doesn’t come as a surprise as the country’s emissions is less than one percent. Similarly, its ranking for energy use per person is high with rating of 15.82.</p><p>However, the country was assessed as a low performer when it comes to renewable energy (6.41) and climate policy (10.58).</p><div> </div><div><strong>WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?</strong><strong></strong><strong><br/></strong></div><p>“Bumaba tayo pero I guess may ibang countries which have been performing even worse maybe with regard to their historical emissions. So, based of off a more holistic look. We’re bad in climate policy work, we&#x27;re bad but in terms of GHG emissions, energy use we’re still ok naman,” she said.</p><p>(We ranked lower but I guess there are countries which have been performing even worse with regard to their historical emissions.)</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/weather-traffic/2025/11/12/filipino-climate-activists-at-cop30-say-loss-and-damage-not-enough-1307">Filipino climate activists at COP30 say loss and damage ‘not enough’</a></div><p>Reyes adds that while the country’s energy use rating is high, but comparing it to renewable energy and its broader impacts it cannot be said that it’s fully reflected.</p><p>For climate advocate JL Algo, assessment on the Philippines’ performance in climate mitigation point to one thing — the efforts to update climate policies, which has never been more relevant that it is today, are not enough.</p><p>“We have very ambitious plans this year in terms of developing new climate policies. The drop in rankings is a significant drop. We’re talking about 12 ranks down compared to the last year.”</p><p>Algo adds, the CCPI results also show that other countries are progressing in climate mitigation strategies and implementation more than the Philippines.</p><div> </div><div><strong style="background-color:transparent">TOP THREE RANKS EMPTY</strong><strong style="background-color:transparent"><br/></strong></div><p>The top three spots of the CCPI are empty. And that’s not a glitch.</p><p>Thea Uhlich, policy advisor at Germanwatch, says it simply means “no country is doing enough across all four categories.”</p><p>Leading the ranking, for the 6th time in a row, is Denmark.</p><p>“Denmark shows, across all four categories, the best performance. Notably, received a very high rating in the renewable energy category, high rating in climate policy and GHG emissions but medium performance in energy use. This says that Denmark also has room for improvement,” she explained. </p><p>Trailing behind is the United Kingdom, Morocco, Chile and Luxembourg.  </p><p>Niklas Höhne of the NewClimate Institute explains that ranking very high in the index means that a country has a “long history of doing the right things.”</p><p>“So countries that go back and forth with one government changing, and then the other government changing completely; with that kind of course, you cannot be doing good climate policy,” he said.</p><p>Therefore, countries with higher rankings are usually those who have a consistent, long-term trajectory.</p><p>Höhne adds that if only each country would do at least one climate mitigation action well—as in the case of Brazil’s reduction of deforestation, the UK’s carbon law framework, Denmark’s renewable energy—then the world will really go a long way. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>VERY LOW PERFORMERS</strong></div><p>Looking at the rest of the rankings, more developed countries are actually rated as very low-performing countries. These include Australia, Canada, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Korea, Russian Federation, the United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia. </p><p>At least 10 of the very low performers belong to the Group of 20 (G20) countries</p><p>“This is very concerning because we know that G20 countries are responsible for about 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So they have a responsibility to reduce their emissions. At the moment not all G20 countries are doing that fast enough,” Uhlich said.</p><p>The countries at the bottom of the list are those that really depend on producing and exporting fossil fuels. But science has also shown that to slow down global warming which causes extreme weather, the world will need to shift away from fossil fuels.</p><p>“As long as we burn fossil fuels, as long as we emit carbon dioxide, global average temperature will increase. With that damages will increase. They will only stop increasing once we stop burning fossil fuels,” Höne said.</p><p>Despite the continuous dependence of developed countries on fossil fuel and their very high emissions, Algo says the world has gone a long way in the last decade in so far as slowing the rise in global temperature.</p><p>“The Paris Agreement did succeed in mitigating certain levels of climate pollution.”</p><p>The fact, however, remains that the world is still not on track to limit long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celisus. This, he says, can be attributed to countries in the G20 “have not fulfilled their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”</p><p>While the CCPI rankings shows that Philippines in a relatively better position compared to many other countries, it is also an indication of the need of government to push for even better policies to manage the growing climate crisis.</p><p>And as negotiations at the UN climate conference peak, experts are hoping that the Philippines will make a stronger stand to secure much needed climate financing to make the country more prepared during extreme weather events which are only bound to become more frequent.</p><div><br/></div><div><em>This story was produced as part of the COP30 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews&#x27; Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.<br/></em></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS:</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KQz2jVGauHo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CiNNkcTENQ8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The Philippines is considered a medium-performing country in so far as climate mitigation performance is concerned as it drops 12 rungs in ratings of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).</p>

The Philippines is considered a medium-performing country in so far as climate mitigation performance is concerned as it drops 12 rungs in ratings of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).

Philippines slips in global climate performance ranking

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Philippines slips in global climate performance ranking

Raphael Bosano,

ABS-CBN News

Published November 19, 2025 03:22 PM PHT

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Updated November 19, 2025 08:03 PM PHT

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COP30

Climate Change

Climate Change Performance Index

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